Mastitis is associated with inflammation and/or infection in breast or udder tissue, more particularly in a mammary gland.
Mastitis is a serious problem in all mammals, including humans and animals.
Mastitis in dairy cattle, for example, is an economically devastating disease causing immense economic losses in the dairy industry and is the most expensive production disease in dairy herds worldwide. For example, in Australia and New Zealand combined, there are about 6 million cattle producing milk. About 15% of any given herd suffers clinical or sub-clinical mastitis, and therefore, at any given time there are about 900,000 cattle in Australia and New Zealand alone that are suffering from clinical and sub-clinical mastitis. Currently, every case of clinical mastitis costs farmers at least $200.
The sub-clinical or clinical definition of mastitis is defined by the presence of somatic cells in milk. In Australia and other countries, the payment to the farmer for the milk may be somewhat dependent on somatic cell count. For example, at very low somatic cell counts a premium price may be paid for the milk. On the other hand, milk above a threshold somatic cell count of 400,000 cells/ml is not considered fit for human consumption in Europe.
Current treatments for mastitis include long-acting antibiotics, such as ampicillin, cloxacilin, cephalonium and bismuth subnitrate.
With respect to dairy cattle, in addition to the costs of administering the antibiotics, there is also is a withholding period that must elapse before the milk produced by treated subjects can be used for human consumption. This withholding period varies between the types of antibiotics administered, but is typically about 96 hours. This withholding period results in significant losses in productivity for dairy farms.
With respect to humans, antibiotic treatment may affect breastfeeding.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved or alternative treatments for inflammation and/or infection in breast or udder tissue, more particularly in a mammary gland, for use in livestock, but also in other mammals such as humans, and to address the problems caused by mastitis.
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